£ _s._ _d._ Steam Association 133 6 8 Infirmary at Southampton 10 10 0 Rent of Children’s School at Southampton 20 0 0 ------------ £163 16 8 ============ [9] The tenor of this memorandum is satisfactory in so far as it recognises the efficiency with which this Company has executed the services contracted for, and its consequent claim to be continued in the performance of it. But in two points his lordship has fallen into error:-- First--In drawing the conclusion that the mileage rate of payment for one line of mail service ought to regulate the payment for another line, without taking into account the various circumstances, such as the amount of commercial traffic, cost of fuel, &c., on one line as compared with the other. Had his lordship informed himself on these matters, he would have learned that it was the large amount of traffic, in the carrying of merchandise to and from Constantinople and the Black Sea, by those steamers carrying the India mails to and from Malta, that enabled the Company to carry the mails in the Mediterranean at so low a rate as 4_s._ 6_d._ (or rather, as was actually the rate, 4_s._ 3_d._) per mile, and that such a circumstance formed no criterion of the rate which would be remunerative on the Southampton and Alexandria line, where there was no such amount of traffic to meet the expenses. The second point is in his having mistaken those funds necessary to be reserved out of earnings to maintain the integrity of the Company’s property, for an accumulation of capital. [10] “The company have since built premises in Leadenhall-street, and the managing directors, in consequence, pay to the company £1,000 per annum as a rental, under this agreement.” [11] “The three managing directors established the trade at their risk, before it became a joint-stock company; and the rate of commission contemplated a remuneration for past as well as future services.” [12] “This has since been modified: one managing director will retire in 1850, without any consideration, the saving to be credited to the Company.” The salaries of assistants, clerks, and other disbursements which the managing directors have to pay out of their commissions, now amount to £6,000 per annum. [13] See Report of Committee of the House of Lords on the Post Office, Session 1847.